A RARE horse breed was included at Malvern Three Counties show for the first time.
Malvern has long been synonymous with the annual pilgrimage of golden horses for their National Championship show at the glorious Three Counties Showground.
The British Palomino and Dilute Society is the longest surviving colour society in the UK having been created in the 1950’s by a group of enthusiasts who were finding that their palomino and cream horses were being discriminated against in showing classes.
These founding members also wanted to promote the breeding, and development of the perfect golden horse.
These horses have a dilute gene which will dilute a brown horse to gold. A horse with two dilute genes will appear white or cream and will usually have blue or amber eyes.
In the 1950’s most breed societies chose to hide the fact that dilute horses existed and many palomino horses would be registered as chestnut.
Those who did go in the show ring were usually put at the bottom of the line as judges favoured more traditional colours.
In recent years golden horses have become more popular and many palomino’s and buckskins are exhibited in the best shows in the UK including the Horse of the Year Show.
This small Society is run by volunteers with the aim to improve breeding of dilute horses and provide a friendly environment for people to enjoy showing their horses.
They run their own shows and hold affiliated classes at many Royal Shows up and down the Country including the Royal Welsh, Royal Lancashire and Royal Bath and West.
A spokesperson from the society said: “The comments from the public was really encouraging as the ring was so different to all the other classes with the horses sparkling gold and silver in the sunshine.”
Winners included Manordeilo Magic Mike owned by Tracey Nash for the four and over category and Stella Sheer Lustre owned by Samantha Gowen won overall Champion, and the riding was won by Abbeyvale Zeus ridden by Nicky Crooks.
The Society will be back at Malvern today and tomorrow for the annual National Championships.
This will bring all the best palomino and dilute horses from all over the UK to the foot of the hills to compete for 30 Championship classes and over 70 individual classes.
There are three rings running simultaneously and an evening Performance including Concours d’Elegance where competitors aim to reproduce a look from a bygone era with period dresses.
